F. King Alexander sits at a meeting with university vice presidents in his office at California State University-Long Beach. Alexander took over as president of the LSU System last week.

Written by

Koran Addo
The Advocate

When he first became president of California State University-Long Beach in 2005, the talk was that F. King Alexander wasn't qualified to run the institution of more than 30,000 people.

But that view changed, according to people such as former Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill and university fundraising chief Andrea Taylor.

"When he was hired, people were intent on not liking him. His predecessor had a warm presence. King had a different personality," Taylor said. "It's a credit to him that he could succeed here. It's not like the campus decided to embrace him. He earned that campus and ...